Featured Vendor: Rusty Art

This featured vendor article was written by one of our frequent customers, Ruth Knox.

What happens when you put together a retired pipe fitter and a bunch of rusty metal, tools and machinery parts? Well, if that retiree is Jerry Brooks,you have artistic magic. If you wandered around an old farm or ranch, you’d see pieces of metal long past their original use, baked in the sun, and warped by time. When Jerry wanders, he sees something entirely different. He sees the raw material for his award-winning one of a kind metal art sculptures. His work, mostly sold locally, has been commissioned for private and public art installations. His magnificent life-size bald eagle with a fish in her talons now rests on the shoreline in Mission B.C. in Canada.

Jerry, unassuming, and humble by nature, lives in Wilder, Idaho, and with his grandson, Kurt Dycus, travels to Boise every weekend. “I couldn’t do this without him”, he confesses. “He makes it all possible.” Jerry taught Kurt how to work with metal, and proudly shows off a welding job on a 4 foot dragonfly sculpture because Kurt did the welding attaching the massive wings. Together, whether in the shop, or at the market, they are making memories and creating art, youth and experience making a good team. The market has been Jerry’s Saturday home for the past ten years. “I love the market. I look forward to it every year”, he says with a little grin, and a tip of his cowboy hat.

The artwork at his market booth changes frequently, depending on his latest creations. His most popular sellers are the wall art pieces of salmon and suns. They are lightweight, easy to carry or ship, and moderately priced. Jerry will ship anywhere in the U.S. You might also find turtles, crickets, quail, garden hawks made of repurposed garden tools, lawn, wall, and garden art in various sizes and designs. Some of his work is almost entirely made of recycled and repurposed materials, others are a combination of old and new, and some, like the suns and the fish, are new material.

One of [his] most dramatic pieces… is the Dragon Head Fire Pit. You won’t find one of these on anyone else’s patio. It is a hand-made one of a kind piece, with each scale on the dragon individually cut out and welded into place. Its horns make dramatic smoke stacks, and when a fire is lit, the flames glow red through its eyes, its open mouth, and its fangs. It is 200 pounds of unique inspiration in art form.

Check out Jerry’s booth at the Capital City Public Market where you will find some of the finest metal art in the Northwest!